Community Stories

3 Stories from Volunteers, Donors & Supporters

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This is a great organization that is leading in the promotion of Jewish education and values in a warm and inspiring way. Their work with special needs kids via their "Friendship Circle" especially commendable.

I am a person with a mobility challenge and I found a warm, helpful welcome from the Rabbis at CHABAD LUBAVITCH OF GREATER FORT LAUDERDALE on the Galt. Rabbi Moshe Meier Lipszyk and Rabbi Yitzchok Naparstek are the most compassionate and dedicated spiritual advisors I have known.
Previously I was rejected by the Simon, the Director at at the Ft. Lauderdale Sephardic Synagogue at 3900 N. Ocean Blvd. I wanted to re-establish my Jewish roots and find some camaraderie at a synagogue in my neighborhood. After a struggle to get to his sevices on the third floor, Simon shouted at me, "We don't need your kind here." While the man was screaming at me, in front of a handful of shocked parishioners, I asked him, "What did I do wrong? Where is the love?" He shouted at me, "There is no love. You don't belong here. This is a closed group." He told me I was "too much trouble." Since I had no contact with him before or during the services he could be referring only to my disability.
It would have neen easy to abandon my faith but the following Friday night I went to services at the Chabad Lubavitch and found a gracious welcome. There is always a smile and a helpful hand. The Chabad is continually adding new services to help the community.

Chabad Lubavitch on the Galt has been an amazing part of my life for 20 years now. They have done such extraordinary things. Chabad has helped me keep my Jewish faith enriched, alive and nourished. However, it has been the past 3 years that they have offered Sunday school to my son which has been even more extraordinary. He has learned to LOVE being Jewish and gives him a richness of our Jewish culture and life that I could alone not give him at home. You see I have very little family and married outside our faith; My family has all gone in many directions and do not practice their Judaism in a rich and deep way. The Chabad family has given me a home I could not imagine my life without. I feel so very blessed to be part of this community. And what shines so bright is my 7 year old son who LOVES being Jewish, learning about being Jewish. Thank you. Alison Regli